A common disadvantage in the use of currently-available printing stations--such for example as laser page printers and the like--is the manner in which such printers deposit sequentially-printed sheets into a delivery bin or tray. The manner in which printed sheets are so deposited typically requires that the stack of printed sheets be subsequently resorted or rearranged by the user in order to place the sheets in their correct sequence, from the first page to the last, from the top of the stack.
A current state-of-the-art delivery device is disclosed in European Patent Al-0 200 481. In that apparatus a page-flipping or turning device is provided between the printing station--from which individual sheets are output printed side up--and the delivery device to attain a stack in which the sheets are properly ordered by their progressively numbered pages from top to bottom in the stack. This functionality is implemented by an expensive, relatively complex device for effecting the flipping or turning of the individual sheets at the inlet of the delivery device. More particularly, the turning device consists of a rotor having pairs of individually-flexible strips between which each face-up printed sheet is received, is flipped through rotation of the rotor, and is then released from between the flexible strips with the printed sides of the sheets face downward.